


One of a Kind

by chouhimes



Category: Tales of Graces
Genre: Gen, but idk could take place between the end and future arc i guess, kind of au where future arc never happened, they exchange gifts and have a Good Time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-27
Updated: 2015-12-27
Packaged: 2018-05-09 16:16:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5546924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chouhimes/pseuds/chouhimes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The gang meets up for the holiday season.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One of a Kind

**Author's Note:**

> sorry it's a little late, hope you enjoy!

“Come on, we’re gonna be late!” 

“Cheria, slow down! We’re right here, it’s fine!” Asbel stumbles as he’s dragged along and tries not to drop the stack of gifts under his arm. 

“Asbel, will they open gifts without us?” Sophie questions, easily relieving Asbel’s burden by taking the boxes from him. “I don’t want them to miss our presents.” 

“No, Sophie. They promised to wait until everyone is there, so don’t worry.” Asbel smiles, patting her head and nodding to the guards they’ve just reached. They incline their heads, moving for the group to enter. 

Windor Castle is as elegant as ever, possibly even more so for the holiday season. Cheria gasps as they pass through the main hall; brilliantly gleaming garlands and trinkets decorate almost every inch of the room, creating a near-blinding but gorgeous atmosphere. 

Sophie makes a sound of awe, and turns to Asbel, eyes gleaming. “It’s so beautiful!”

Asbel is just as stunned as his friends, staring around in wonder. “Yeah… I wonder if Richard was the one who decided how to decorate…”

“Knowing him, I wouldn’t doubt it. This is incredible!” Cheria fiddles with one of the snowflakes hanging from the second-story guardrails. “Is this made from real silver?!” 

“I wish it were so,” a calm voice echoes throughout the hall, “but my advisors were adamant that it would be a waste of too much Gald. I had to settle for imitations, sadly.”

“Richard!” Asbel grins, moving to greet his friend. “Thanks so much for inviting us! Is everyone else here?” 

“All but Pascal, though I might be concerned if she were anything but late.” Richard smiles. “It’s wonderful to see you all again. Have you been doing well? Come, let’s talk in here.” 

They move to the throne room, which is even more intricately decorated than the great hall. Richard notices their staring once again and smiles gently. 

“This is the only room I had complete executive decision over. I had those silver snowflakes made, but just enough for this area. The tree is all my doing as well. I was even allowed to hand decorate it,” there’s a slight bitter edge in his words. “I wasn’t allowed such luxuries when I was younger. I was told these kinds of activities weren’t fit for a prince.”

Sophie frowns and picks up a glittering red glass ball. “Richard, there are still decorations on this table. Can I put them on the tree?” 

“I was hoping you would want to!” the king’s voice regains it’s cheerful tone, and he hurries to stand by Sophie. He turns to the others in the room. “I had ornaments made especially for each of you, if you’d like to partake as well.” 

“Ah, so you finally arrived.” Hubert states, entering from a side door with Malik. They both carry sizable tubs, which they set down near the others. “It’s good to see you, Brother. Sophie, Cheria, you as well.”

“Happy holidays, you three.” Malik throws an arm around Asbel’s shoulders, grinning. “I’m glad you could make it. Now we’re just missing Pascal… I received a message saying she’d be here very soon, though that was a while ago, so I’d imagine--”

“Sorry I’m so late, everyone!” Pascal yells, trying to untangle herself from a golden garland. “Ahhh, this thing is--! A little help, please, haha?”

Sophie is by her side before anyone can react, and immediately begins trying to untie her friend. 

“I’ll help with these,” Cheria laughs, grabbing several boxes from Pascal’s arms. 

“Thanks, guys! I don’t know how this happened. I guess it might be because I couldn’t really see with all those presents, but I don’t know how I got so tangled!” Pascal shrugs out from the last bit of garland, then sighs. “Did you open any presents yet?” 

“No,” says Richard as they gather around the table. “We were just going to finish decorating the tree. We can exchange gifts after, if you’d like.”

“Yes, please!” Sophie responds eagerly. 

“Perfect. The ornaments are in the bins Malik and Hubert so kindly brought in. I think it should be fairly obvious which are yours.” 

Richard wasn’t exaggerating, they realize, as they uncover the glass balls and carefully remove them. Each one is colored in the likeness of the outfits they wore back when they saved the world, emblazoned with the first letter of each of their names. They’re very obviously Richard-designed, but that fact makes them endearing even if they’re gaudy, to say the least. 

Once they choose a spot for each of the ornaments, Richard pulls out a shining gold star. 

“Would you put it on the tip of the tree, Sophie?” he requests, and Sophie looks even more excited than she has all day. Malik gives her a boost, and soon the tree is complete. 

 

“Alright! Time for gifts!” Pascal declares, sitting quickly and grabbing one with her name on it. 

“Slow down, Pascal!” chides Cheria, sitting next to her and putting the box back. “Sophie wants us to open hers last. They’re all in purple, you guys, so avoid those, alright?” 

“Of course,” Richard says, revealing a neatly wrapped scarf. “This is wonderful! You have my gratitude, Cheria, I’ll wear it as often as possible.” 

“Oh, it’s no big deal, really. I’m glad you like it! I hope you all like yours as well!” she laughs, pulling out a horrendous argyle knit sweater, pink and blue. “Ah… thank you, Richard, it’s… certainly eye-catching…” 

“I know you’ve been traveling to Fendel a lot with your relief team recently, and I feared you would be too cold. Though I know all of you visit Fendel every so often, so I got everyone else sweaters as well!”

“Thank you, Richard!” Sophie’s already put her own on, a light purple and white striped knit, and is smiling happily. 

“I’m glad she’s having so much fun,” Cheria voices to the group as Richard goes into detail about the process behind designing Sophie’s sweater, the android listening with rapt attention. 

“Yeah, this is her first holiday season, right? She’s so excited about everything! Even more than me, maybe!” Pascal reaches over and disperses the gifts she brought. “C’mon! Open them!”

Everyone warily unties the boxes, gasping when something flies out of each of them. When they settle down, they realize that Pascal has created miniature versions of them, all approximately the size of their arms, and the group is stunned into silence, only the faint buzzing of the robots’ motors filling the room. 

“Aren’t they cool?!” Pascal jumps up, barely able to contain her pride. “I made tiny robots of you all! They don’t do too much, honestly, but they can store things inside if you push the button on their backs!” 

A quick demonstration later, Pascal’s own robot floats next to her, filled with the scarf and sweater she just got. “If you wear the bracelet included it’ll follow you, and you can control it using the buttons there too! Red is to shut it down, blue opens the hatch, yellow is to stay in place-- oh! They can kinda fight too, but if you use that feature too much they blow up, haha! I still need to work out the kinks...” 

“Thanks, Pascal,” Asbel laughs warily, carefully shutting his robot back inside its box. Pascal is busy tinkering with her robot already. “I’m sure it’ll come in handy…um, why don’t we open Malik’s?” 

“Yes, I hope you’ll find them enjoyable.” Malik says. 

“It’s...water.” Cheria intones, looking relatively confused. 

“Straight from Fendel! As fresh as can be.” 

“I...thanks… I’m sure it’ll taste great.” Cheria looks around, seeing what the others received. Asbel is holding a tie with the common Fendel pine patterned on. Sophie is holding a Fendel snowglobe. Richard looks far too happy with the Fendel fur hat he unwrapped. It seems all of them have received tacky Fendel souvenirs. 

“Ahem.” Hubert clears his throat, passing out his gifts. “Here you all are.”

“They’re...comics?” Asbel questions, holding the thin booklet up. “Why does it start on volume 4?”

“Wait, I have volume 3…” Cheria says, opening Pascal’s for her, the Amarcian still distracted. “This is the sixth? Did we all just get different volumes of the Sunscreen Rangers comic?” 

“I figured it would be beneficial in that you can bond while reading them, and it saves money because each of you already has one of the volumes. There’s also the fact that I am their number one fan, so if you have any questions about the canon you can come to me.” Hubert looks far too satisfied with his idea.

“You just want someone to geek out with you, Hubert.” Asbel laughs, and Hubert flushes.

“Wrong! I’m sharing the Strahtan culture with you! You should be grateful!” he sputters.

“Wow...Asbel, look, I got volume 1! And Richard has 2! This is so cool...thank you, Hubert!” 

Hubert blushes even more. “T-Thank you...I-I mean, you’re welcome! For the gifts.” 

“Alright, alright, let’s move on before he passes out from all this blushing, I-- ow, Hubert!” Asbel rubs his arm, frowning. “I got you all stuff too, of course. Here.” 

A few torn boxes later, the scent of apples fills the room, and Richard hums. 

“This looks delicious, Asbel!” he exclaims, popping a tart into his mouth and groaning quietly. “It’s fantastic!”

Cheria looks down at the apple pie she got, and it admittedly looks very good. Between the six of them, they have a wide assortment of apple-based desserts.

Asbel rubs the back of his neck, face red. “Ah, it’s nothing. You know how Lhant is known for its apples, these are all pretty common. I hope they turned out alright.”

“They taste great, Asbel!” Sophie mumbles, an apple cookie stuffed in her mouth. 

“We still have Sophie’s gifts, you guys, come on and put the food away,” Cheria shakes her head, smiling, and Sophie perks up. 

“I hope you guys like them…I’ve been making them for a while now…” she murmurs, placing each box in front of the respective owner. 

“Sophie, this is incredible!” Cheria gasps, pulling out several small containers. They’re labeled by use in Sophie’s handwriting, and from the scent, they’re homemade from different flowers and herbs. 

“I made them with each of you in mind, so they’re kind of specific… Cheria has lots of healing medicine for her relief work, the Captain and Hubert have freeze and burn healing medicines since their climates are more extreme...I made them like that.” Sophie looks down, nervous, and Asbel reaches over to hug her. 

“These are amazing, Sophie! I’m sure that these’ll help us! Is this what you’ve been doing with all those flowers you grow in the greenhouse?”

Sophie nods, and Richard looks over at her. “Thank you so much, Sophie… these are truly one-of-a-kind, I appreciate the effort you put into them.”

“Yeah, thank you, Sophie!” Cheria smiles, reaching over to hug her as well, and soon all of them are piled together, even Pascal. Sophie giggles, and they eventually untangle from each other. 

“I’m glad...thank you all!” she beams. “Do you think we can eat those desserts now?" 


End file.
